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Sign thefts plague Jay Township

According to Jay Township Supervisor Francis Gustafson, the township loses around $1,500 to $1,600 a year replacing stolen or damaged road signs."We just put new ones up on the hill and they're all busted," Gustafson said. He asked his fellow supervisors Murray Lilley and Jeremy Rippey if they had any suggestions on how to combat the reoccurring problem. Township resident and former supervisor Bob Coppolo remarked that the issue has been taking place for years. He noted that in the past, when stolen signs had been recovered it was difficult to prosecute the individuals found to have them in their possession. "We recovered signs in a camp in the Spring Run area. It was turned in to the police and [as another resident had mentioned earlier regarding a different matter brought to authorities' attention] nothing was done, other than the township got some signs back. There was no adverse consequences in the incident," Coppolo said. Other residents remarked that the problem is not unique to the township and instead occurs all over the area. Lilley remarked that individuals are "destroying [the signs] faster than [the township] can put them up.""We put speed limit signs up, they steal them," Lilley said.Gustafson suggested putting a bounty on the the signs where a reward would be offered if someone reported who was taking the signs. Meeting attendees responded that individuals would likely steal the signs and then say they found them and ask for the reward.